BANKs’s GARFISH. 
259 
strong spine, rising close within the frontal curve, the three 
next very slender and much the closest together, and when the 
describers first saw the fish they were united in what remained 
of their length by a membrane. The next was equally slender 
with the preceding, but somewhat further apart, and the three 
or four next in order were nearly as strong as the first. Those 
which followed diminished in strength and length, so as to 
become uniform with the rays of the dorsal fin. Exclusive of 
the crest there were two hundred and sixty-eight rays in the 
dorsal fin; the border of the membrane pale red. Pectoral fins 
close behind the gill-covers, without colour, having eleven rays, 
the longest measuring two inches. The ventral fins formed of 
a pair of very strong and straight spines, having a border of 
membrane; but they had been broken off at the end. No 
mention is made of an air-bladder; and the stomach was scarcely 
to be distinguished from the gullet. In it there appeared to 
be grains of the spawn of fish.” 
To this lengthened account it may be of interest to add, that 
when the fish thus described was exhibited in London, I accom- 
panied my friend Mr. Yarrell in a privileged visit of inspection 
before it was laid open to the public; and that the figures I 
prefer to give in illustration of its history were the result of 
this examination; the bent form being adopted for the purpose 
of including its larger dimensions within the limited size of the 
plate. In the likeness contained in Sir John Richardson’s 
supplement to his edition of Mr. Yarrell’s “History of Fishes,” 
the rays of the plume, or anterior part of the dorsal fin, are 
represented as they appeared at first to the fishermen, and as 
also they are marked by Mr. Hancock and Dr. Embleton, but 
they did not exist in the fish when exhibited; and it is preferred 
to crlve in our representation on the plate only so much as 
was“ seen by myself. The caudal extremity also is deserving 
of notice; for not only is there not a vestige of a fin, but a 
peculiar organization is found there, which appears to possess 
a power of some peculiarity of action. Regarding this, a note 
made on the spot says that from a firm or bony fixed point 
above, a bony curve with the concavity posterior passed to a 
fixed point below; and from one of these fixed points to the 
other was a thinner substance, which was more moveable than 
